Hinchingbrooke privatisation was guaranteed to fail

Commenting on the news today (Friday) that Circle is to withdraw from its contract to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridge, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said:
 
“Privatising Hinchingbrooke was guaranteed to be a failure. It was a dangerous government experiment which should now raise alarm bells for any other firms who think that running hospitals is an easy route to profit.
 
“The experience shows that forcing a privatised model on the NHS was never going to work.
 
“Circle has systematically failed at Hinchingbrooke. It has caused untold damage to the finances of the hospital, services, local NHS patients and staff, and has placed the future of Hinchingbrooke at significant risk.
 
“The NHS is simply not shaped for competition. This government’s obsession with selling off our National Health Service is a huge waste of taxpayers’ money. Setting up the model was an unnecessary expense which could have been used to recruit more staff and deal with the growing demand on services.
 
“The NHS is currently struggling with its biggest crisis in a decade and despite this, staff are working day in and day out caring for the most vulnerable. Meanwhile, at the first sign of trouble Circle is off, leaving local NHS patients and staff facing huge uncertainties about the future.”